001I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. Mr. Jason Cooper, here. Mr. Donald Daws, here. Mr. Joseph, Julia's excused absence. Mrs. Mr. Neil N here, Mr. Maiden N here, Mrs. Danielle Padulla and here and Mr. James Paul here. Okay, we are going to call the meeting to order for the um Union City School District Board of Education. We I need a motion to go into executive session for attorney client communication and employment history of a particular people. Move it. Second. All in favor? Okay. Executive session we're saying move it. Second. All in favor. Carries. We're ready for the Okay, we're going to call the meeting to order for the
002regular U meeting for the board of education. is the color guard. Okay. Have the presentations of the colors. Oh, or arch. Hope life I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Ready. Ace four arch. Okay. Can the clerk call the role, please? Mr. Jason Cooper here. Mr. Donald Dolls here. Mr. Joseph Banker Jr. is excused absent. Mrs. Tamil N here. Mr. Braden Nana here. Mrs. Danielle Padulla here. Mr. James Paul here. our student reply. Perfect. Okay. I want to welcome everybody um tonight. In Joe's absence, you have me. So, here I am. Bear with me. I have Mr. Shields here to help me along the way, but um I appreciate everybody coming out
003and um spending their Tuesday evening with us. So, we will start with the reading of the resolutions. Resolution for Elaine Kenzo. Authorization is requested of the board of education to approve the following resolution. The board of education of the Utica City and the Utica City School District rec record records with sorrow the passing of former employee Elaine Colenzo. Miss Colenzo was employed by the Utica City School District for approximately 30 years in the central kitchen food service program. Elaine's warmth, generosity, and kindness left a lasting impact on everyone she met. Her dedication to her job and cheerful spirit were appreciated until her retirement. Resolved that the board of education expresses it sincere sympathy to the family of Miss Kenzo and that the resolution be saved upon the records of the district. Resolution for Craig Felhub,
004former employee of the Udica City School District. The board of education of the Udica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Craig Felhabber. Mr. Felhabber was employed by the Udica City School District for approximately 17 years, originally as the clerk of the works and eventually superintendent of buildings and grounds until his retirement. Mr. Philhober was a very charismatic individual who loved life. He greeted everyone with a warm smile and handshake. He will be remembered for his kind and generous heart, his compassion and willingness to help touch the lives of many, leaving a lasting impact on his community. Resolved that the board of education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of Mr. Felhub and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. Resolution for the passing of Penny
005Davies. The board of education of the Udica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Penny Davies. Miss Davies was employed by the Udica City School District for approximately 24 years as a library media specialist. Miss Davies was a lifelong learner and researcher. She enjoyed creating and collecting dolls and doll houses. She gave away knitted and crocheted items to those in need. And above all, she loved her cats. Resolve that the board of e education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of Miss Davies and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. Resolution for Jennifer Torres, employee of the Udica City School District. The board of education of the Udica City School District records with sorrow the passing of Jennifer Torres, a food service monitor team leader for
006the district for approximately 23 years. most recently at General Herkimer School. Mrs. Torres, affectionately known by all as Mrs. T, took pride in her job and had a close relationship with the children she cared for, as well as all her co-workers. Known for blowing her whistle, the children knew that something was going on if it was going off. Jennifer looked forward to her special holiday work parties with her work families. Resolved that the board of education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of Mrs. Torres and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. Okay. I need a motion to accept the resolutions for Miss Colenzo, Mr. Felhabber, Miss Davies, and Miss Torres. Move it. Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Second. Yes. We're going to take a moment of silence. Okay.
007At this time, we would have our student rep. Good evening everyone. For March report, Proctor High School drama club performed Mama Mia on March 6, 7, and 8th. Proctor's um bridai members with their adviser Monica Bravo went to Albany from March 7 to March 10 to learn more about leadership. Proctor's Model UN Club attended the 53rd annual United Nations Association of Rochester, Model United Nations Conference at St. John Fiser University in Rochester on March 7 and 8th. March 8th, students and teacher participated in the heart run and walk. Student council members and key club members helped organize thrift store and Cinderella closet openhouse. The military ball was also held on March 8th at Valentino's banquet hall. Artists of Proctor High School received recognition on March 13th for their outstanding artworks. Proctor's baseball team went to
008Myrtle Beach on March 14th to compete against other teams. The spring career fair also took place on March 14. On the 18th, there was a practice lockdown drill. I can held a self-investment event for young men in the Udica district. Last but not least, members of speech and debate club, Julia Wyn, Rahar Nar, Jumabi, Salashta, Rah Raheen, John and Joe Nes advance into national championship. Thank you. Thank you. Good. Any questions? Okay, now's your chance to go home and do your homework or stay with us. The choice is yours. Okay, at this time we are going to do student recognitions. Um, if I can have our athletic director, Mr. Patterson come forward and we have a couple coaches in the room, Coach Monroe, Coach Time, uh, Coach Batista, and Mr. Coach Walt Savage. Good afternoon.
009would like to recognize the following Oh, can you just put your mic on? Turn your mic on, please, sir. Sorry. Good afternoon, everyone. We'd like to recognize the following uh track and field athletes from the girls and boys uh Proctor team for their most inspirational awards. We have Miss Shenna Lock for the 55 meter hurdles. Could you please stand? [Applause] You want to go right to the podium? You can go right to the podium. Don't be shy. Just jump over them like it's Yeah. Pretend it's a hurdle. We have Moses Shan for the weight row. We have Rajanna Judah for the 4x2000 meter relay team. We have Gianna Lacy for the 4x200 meter relay team. We have Bria Patterson for the 4x200 meter relay team. And we have Rihanna Patterson. I'm sorry, Amy Valentine for
010the 4x20. [Applause] Thank you. Congratulations to all these athletes. Thank you to Mr. Tyne, Mr. Savage, Miss Monroe, and Mr. Pata for your support of our scholars. We appreciate all that you do for the Utica City School District and athletes. Thank you. Keep up the great work. We love you what you're doing. Do your best. Thank you. Okay, guys. Don't sit down. This way. Come on, Moses. Bring Br your your entire bring all and the coaches if you can please come forward. Great job, you guys. Did any of you want to say anything? Come on. You want to say something? Did you guys have practice today? Did you guys have practice? Was it outside? Oh, I was going to say it was snowing. Yeah, leave the boys outside. You want to say something? You want
011to say something? Come on, don't be shy. No, I did shot foot and I was terrible, but my parents made me do something. All right, you guys want to turn right around? You guys face coaches right here. You want to take a step or can you get them all? Do you want to get in as well? Okay, we'll stand up. We'll stand up. Stand on the chair. Thank you. Thank you guys. [Applause] You guys, I feel like you want to say something. Do you want to say? Look at here. Look at how Come on. They do. Do you want to say your coaches? There you go. I want to thank Coach Batista. If it wasn't for him, I would have never beat the school record. Thank you girls. Last chance. All right. If you change
012your mind, the mic is on. Okay. Community recognition. Mr. Anuso. Um, if you want to come up, I believe we have is Planet Fitness. Is Antoine here? They were unable to make it. But I'm happy to announce that Planet Fitness has donated approximately $40 to $50,000 worth of cardiovascular uh fitness equipment, a variety of pieces, $10,000 per unit. So they'll be delivering that to Proctor High School. So we're very happy with that. Thank you. [Applause] Yeah. Yeah. I did just want to say while Mr. Ambuso is here, thank you so much for your service to the the district. It's been a real pleasure to work with you in PA committee meetings. Been a a breath of fresh air for this district and thank you for all everything that you've done. Okay, at this time I'm
013going to ask Dr. Spence um in regards to the libraries. All right, so I am really really excited to talk about an initiative that the administration has prepared which is our UDICA reads initiative. So we are looking at implementing uh more than 15 Mike what do we call these boxes? Book boxes. book boxes throughout our communities across the city of Udica. It's uh it's we're working in collaboration with the city of Udica, Mayor Galimi, as well as the director of the Udica public libraries because we believe that literacy is the key to learning, it's the key to freedom in our society. So, not only are we making a structural investment by putting them there, we'll be working to make sure we have age appropriate multicultural books available for our students and our communities. So, I
014point your attention here right there. I want to take a second to just do a quick over because this was made with some really good materials. So, shout out to buildings and grounds for the work that they did. But Mike, you want to talk a little bit about the project we talked about when we got here. Yeah. Yeah. So, we met with the obviously superintendent met with the mayor in this in the uh library uh library support the book boxes for the reading materials and the mayor to help us uh find a locations around the city in the in the parks and then uh Dr. beds put it all together and then so we built we kind of looked at book boxes that were in the city districtwide now made them a little bigger put
015about 25 to 30 books in there obviously take a book need a book bring book back they're made of all weather material cedar material so they won't rot they're going to be um concreted into the ground that's just a platform here for for display and uh we're going to be have we should have them in by uh April 26th or 28th Yeah, they built this to be sustainable. So, we're really excited about this. Have to use the local. So, you'll see this in neighborhoods across the city. And again, we thank our partners and we'll have an official groundbreaking ceremony once we actually put them in the ground. So, thank you all. It's a good good thing. [Applause] Okay. Any questions on that? Okay. Presentations. Bold tablets. Oh, public comment. There was none. Did anybody change
016their mind? Sorry, I skipped over that. At this time, nobody signed up for public comment. Thank you, Braden. Okay. Bold tablets presentation. Welcome. Hello everyone. My name is Lupe. I'm from Bold Systems. Thank you for having me. just put something quick together, a quick little presentation on what you guys will be using for your election coming up in May. Before you guys were using paper books, but now you'll be using tablets, something very similar to what the county uses. So, I'll go over some benefits and the pros of using ebooks. And if you guys have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer those, too. So, ebooks are userfriendly readyto use tablets. We'll give those to the district clerk uh to use on election day. We provide them, maintain them, and store them at
017our office. You guys don't have to be responsible for any of that stuff. All the accessories are included. So, chargers, the cool little stand that it sits on, the stylus pen, everything that you'll need for the ebooks, we'll provide for you. Some of the things it helps with is it reduces voter weight times. So, before with your paper books, you guys might have had at some locations alphabetic breakouts. With ebooks, you don't need to do that anymore. When someone comes in, there's a line. They don't have to wait for one specific ebook to check in. They can check in wherever um a pole worker is free. Check-in takes less than a minute. I'll show you guys a live example in a minute so you guys can see how quick that is. But your pole workers
018don't have to flip through pages to look for a voter anymore. They type in the name, very similar to what the county does, and that's how your voters would check in on election day. What the ebook can also tell you that the paper books didn't is direct the voter to their correct polling location. So if they're at the wrong poll place, your pole worker can tell them then and there where they should be voting. Uh pre-election setup. So as we spoke, you're no longer going to be using paper books. So this is your entire setup right here on election day. The addendum, which is an update file that we get from the board of elections, can be loaded with a click of a button. There's no more printing pages and putting them in the right
019letters and all that. Pre-election setup. Absentes and early voters are also automatically updated in the ebook. So, that saves a lot of time pre-election as well. Um, election day error. So, before you guys had manual poll list where your poll workers were manually writing everyone's name and address who came in to vote. Now, it does all that stuff electronically for you. Sometimes human error, people would sign on the wrong line with the paper books. With the ebook, that uh helps reduce that. There's two-step verification. So, your poll workers making sure they have the right person and then your voter gets the ability to see that they selected the right person as well. Some of the benefits with the ebooks is that you have the ability to search by name, date of birth, or address. With
020Paperbox, you only had really the ability to search by last name as they were alphabetically broken out, but with ebooks, you have a few more search options. Live reporting. So, as I mentioned, you get automatic poll list, so your pole workers don't have to keep a manual list anymore. Everything gets loaded automatically to your EMS software. And you get real time and hourly turnout report, so you can see who's coming out hourly and see how every location is doing. Tech support. So, one of our techs will be assigned to the area on election day to check in on you guys, make sure you don't have any questions, make sure everything's set up right. Our customer service line is available the entire time as well. And we have fail safes in place. If you lose internet
021connection, that Wi-Fi setting can be turned off so it's not relying on the internet. Post-election support so you can compare machine and ebook totals in real time if that's something you guys wanted to do after the election. Once we have the ebooks back at our office, we'll send you an electronic file of your pull books for you to use for your record retention policy. And then you have the reports available the entire day that you can use for that post election analysis. Does anyone have any questions? Awesome. Thank you for your time, guys. Thank you. Have a good night. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Okay, Miss Felchy, in regards to the RED program, thank you, Jim. So, I'm really excited to get to present on the Raiders Extended Day program, which we lovingly
022call the RED program here in Udica, because we're really, really proud of this program. And like all of our initiatives in Udica, it directly aligns to the UCSD mission and vision, which is to provide highquality educational opportunities for our students. So before I get into the the rest of the PowerPoint, I wanted to start with a video. It's adorable. It's Dr. Spence. If you didn't get a chance to see it, it's only 58 seconds, but I think Joe's got to play it separate. Um, he does this beautiful job in one minute of capturing an overview of the program. superintendent of the Udica City School District and I am so happy because I'm proud to announce that we are implementing our Raiders extended day learning program. We initially started this year conducting four town halls in
023four sections of the city to really gauge the public and our stakeholders interest in providing additional support to our students. We looked at the data and and looked at the supports that we had within the school day and we decided that we wanted to provide additional opportunities for our students to learn, grow, and be nurtured right here in the Udica City School District. So, every day from Monday through Thursday from 3:15 to 6:00 p.m., we will be working with our students, with our amazing faculty and staff to educate and nurture our students, provide support for their academic needs as well as their social emotional learning needs. again, Udica United, and thank you for hanging out with us. I love that video. So, as you heard from the video, uh where did the program start? Where
024did it um where did it arise? It's all from Dr. Spence. This was all a direct result of his 100 day 100 day plan when he arrived at Utica City School District. So when he arrived, he did a really um thorough analysis of current existing programs and services in our district, conducted four town hall meetings, sent out a community climate survey along with staff and student surveys, met with the mayor and county executive, and from all of that really determined that there was this need for afterchool programming between the hours of 3:15 and 6 p.m. And as our team started to do research when we were getting this program off the ground, we discovered that most city school districts across New York State do have um similar comparable um programs in their district. So we're
025so thrilled that he kind of led the charge to bring it to Udica and that we can also offer that to our kids here. So this vision emerged for this afterchool programming that would support students academic and social emotional growth. We sent out an initial survey kind of canvasing interest through parent square prior to Christmas break. About 920 people responded that they were interested for their child to be in a program like this and then a team got together um to bring this vision to life and a fairly quick turnaround time of about a month. So what is the purpose or the vision of the RED program? It's really to provide this structured extended day um opportunity for kids outside of the regular school day where they can receive additional academic support. They can participate
026in enrichment activities, build friendships, develop social skills, and overall enhance their well-being, which will not only benefit them for the program, but also um hopefully follow them to the school day the next day. the logistics of the program. It launched on the very first day of marking period 3, which was the exact halfway point of the year on January 27th. It's available at all 10 elementary schools Monday through Thursday when school is in session. So, if a building has a half day, if there was a snow day, um if after school activities were canceled, there would be no red program. All students in the elementary level are eligible to enroll. However, there is a wait list in almost all of our buildings. Uh we only can um take as many kids as we have staff
027to run the program. But the thought was we'll build it well, start it slow and grow this program over time. That's our goal. Our principles are doing a great job too of monitoring that weight list and as they get capacity, they're adding kids in. Transportation home was provided at 6:00 and students receive a snack and dinner. So, while the program might look a little bit different in every building as far as the activities that they're running or how they're organizing their staff, all the buildings follow a basic uh similar schedule. The first hour of the program from 3:15 to 4:15 is our academic power hour. It doesn't matter if you're in the RED program or if you're in our pre-existing ELT or our extended learning uh tutoring time. Everybody's doing academics that first hour after
028school. Students receive a snack during that power hour. And then from about 4:15 to 5:30ish, students will transition into the fun part, if you will, of the evening, the engagement activities, and they conclude with a dinner before they go home at 6:00. So, academic support, I did want to talk for one minute about the difference between ELT versus RED. So Udica, for a very long time, we've always been super committed to providing our kids with academic support. We've had a pre-existing extended learning time ELT tutoring program that we didn't want to touch because that's very very successful here. That's a very targeted tutoring program. Um it it covers all grades, but it's primarily at our testing grades. So there's that and then there's the red academic time. Kids can do both. So, we have students
029who might be at an ELT and then at 4:15 they'll transition over to RED. If students are not in ELT because ELT is not every single day, then they'll go to the RED academic room. And in that room, they're receiving homework help and academic enrichment and skill development that will support them in any class they're in. The engagement activities. So when we reached out to the principles just to kind of gauge what are you specifically offering for activities we could fill the whole um slide they're offering so many creative wonderful um opportunities for kids. I kind of clump them into categories. So there's arts and crafts which might be holidays like during St. Patrick's Day there was a lot of St. Patrick's Day activities. Physical activity one teacher is doing a soccer club with his
030kids or it could be yoga. Um games could be board games, STEM activities, Legos robotics, book clubs are taking place in some of the buildings, mindfulness or social emotional learning activities. One building's doing gardening. Um one building, a different building is doing a cooking class. There's conflict resolution taking place, music, dance. And that's just a sampling. Um those activities may vary from day to day, week to week, or by grade level. Uh but they're all wonderful. One of um the things we really wanted to make sure was that we could track the impact that the program was having on our students. Um so we're trying to track in three basic ways. Attendance, not we take attendance of the program, but this is day attendance. We're trying to determine if participation in the RED program is
031translating to kids uh improving attendance during the school day. So we're tracking their daily school attendance if they're in the program. academics. We're going to compare marking periods one and two uh overall GPA, if you will, to mark periods three and four to see if we're having an impact with their grades. We're looking at eye ready diagnostic scores from one diagnostic to the next. And I put discipline up there, but I have to tell you, our kids are so amazing that there's very few um there's not a lot to track for the kids that are in the program. They're just all of our kids are great kids, but we are looking at discipline referrals and suspensions. So, who is helping to make the program a success? Um, this slide I I want to take a
032minute. This slide means a lot because we would not have a red program if it weren't for these people. I don't know um if everybody really understands who is doing this program. So almost 100% of the people doing the program are people that have already worked a full day. They're teachers that maybe got to work at 8:00 in the morning and they're staying and teaching all day and then they stay until 6:00 6:30 at night because they really believe in this program and they love their kids. So principles, all of our principles, all there's actually 11 because Columbus had one the first half and the second half. All of our principles worked really hard to launch the program um in the month of December and and in uh to January. The UTA members, I have
033to get a shout out. 25% of UTA members, 25% at the elementary level are in some capacity connected to the RED program. Maybe not on a full-time basis, but they might work one day a week. They might work just the academic power hour, or they might split Monday, Wednesday with a colleague who can do Tuesday, Thursday. That commitment and dedication, the belief first of all in the program and the commitment to their kids after a really long workday speaks volumes. So we've got teach 33 teaching assistants, some of them from secondary, our I can and safe schools workers again who work all day with our kids in our buildings, come back at night. They've committed at every building um partners that are working in the program. We have clerical staff staying. uh transportation's running another
034bus run custodians AV coordinators who every week go and capture photos and videos parent leaison nurses security food service providing another set of meals at the end of the day all of these people have helped make the program a success and I want to say thank you to all of them and then student enrollment we've got a few outliers um as you can see most of our buildings are are they have about 30 to 50 kidsish in the programs give or take and almost all of them do have a weight list and then we've got King and Jones who are our outliers. King really has embraced the program over there. They've King alone has about onethird of their students are involved in the RED program which is tremendous. And then I'm just going to leave
035you with some pictures. Through the whole PowerPoint you've seen actual photos of the kids in the program. And this is why we all do what we do. these beautiful sweet faces and giving them this opportunity is something that we're really proud of. So that's it. Does anybody have any questions that I can answer? I do. Can you go back to that slide that shows enrollment and then the weight list? So this is pretty much looked at daily weekly like I would say probably weekly. All you're talking about the the weight list. Yeah, I would say principles are probably looking at it more like a weekly basis. What's happening is if if they're able to expand, maybe another teacher um says, "Hey, this program is great. I want to work it." They can open up another
036class. And then they can add more kids in. And occasionally there are some students, maybe they weren't involved in anything in January, but now maybe dance or something started, so they drop out. So as as capacity grows, they're adding kids in. And who can work um the red program? Like what are the requirements like if could do you have to be already within the school district to right now outside of our our community partners but they're already employed with I can safe schools. It is currently all UCSD staff. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we we have a brief interruption. Planet Fitness is here. I think Mr. and Bruce, you may have lost, but we can. Hello. Welcome. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you guys doing? Good. Do you want
037to introduce yourself to everybody? Yeah. My name is Antoine. um the general manager of the plant business New Hartford. Um I've been there the last two years. Um and what had Do you want me to talk about it or Yeah. So what ended up happening was we got brand new bikes art bites and rowers and we got and I wanted to donate to like schools in the area. So I end up donating four bites and two rowers. And the goal was to be able to give back to you guys cuz one of our biggest things and my biggest goal was to be a pillar in my community. And we do events with the zoo, we do events with like boys and girls club. So I wanted to find ways to give back to like students
038like in my local area. So because at the end of the day that's my biggest goal for having like being a pill in a community cuz eventually I do want to be a teacher when I get back when I get done being like a a manager in corporate America too. So well we have availability if you want to be you just let us know. Um special well um and it's Antoine right? Yes. Do you want and the equipment went to Proctor is that I gave it to I Mr. Brusso Proctor. Yeah. Right. Proctor. Yeah. Just left. Okay. It's going to Proctor. Awesome. We can't thank you enough. It's super generous and everything that goes to our kids which we're super appreciative and I know they are too. Yeah. So, thank you for that. Thank you
039very much for thinking of us. Of course. Can we have you come up for a quick photo with Dr. Yes. We also have a certificate for you, but we will have it once our board president returns. We'll mail it out to you. All right. Sounds good. Come on. Actually, too, this is actually my last week here. Yeah. I wanted this cuz it was my biggest goal to give back to like my community in any way I could and the last month I was here and I was this is something I came up to when I was able to do it for you guys. A cuz I'm moving to Buffalo to be a regional manager. So Okay. Go Bills. Bills. Never. I'm sorry. Never seen that. Never come right over here. Go birds. Birds. I better
040shut. I better shut my mic off. Who's up first? Make sure you Friday is my last day and then I live in Lancasta. Oh, you going to be like you see actually. Okay. I mean, I I have like seven clubs. I run out of Okay. Thank you so much. Best of luck. Thank you. Best of luck and congratulations. Thank you. I can't. I'm sorry. It was great. Don't forget about them. I promise I won't. How you doing? Thank you very much. Thank you. I can take care of you guys. Hey, another thing too. We have the high school summer pass, too. So, everyone from like 13 to like I think it's like 19 this year get it free anyway. So, we love it. So, they're there all summer. Thank you for that. Thank you. I
041think we need a a district gym. I mean, I wouldn't use it, but it sounds good. Okay, next. Okay. PTO, PTA, shared decisionmaking committees, student council, CSSE chairs, title one, UTA. I saw Scott. I stopped. I tried to get Scott Junior to come up. Oh, Scott Jr., you don't want to go. Good evening. Scott Regowski, UTA president. We have had many activities going on throughout the district. Our students and teachers have been busy this past month with clubs, talent shows, math tournaments, international nights, plays, sports, field trips, and parent teacher conferences. We celebrated school social worker week earlier in March. We thank all of our social workers for their efforts in helping students overcome challenges and achieve their full potential. Uh, Cinderella and Prince Charming Closet is a free clothing store for students looking for
042semiformal and formal outfits for special occasions. We currently have over 400 dresses and approximately 100 suits in stock to help all area students attend special events in their lives. We thank the Proctor admin, custodian, and security staff for their unending support for this project. We have been opening the closet for over 15 years and love helping uh kids look fabulous for their special day. Since the last board of education meeting, the UTA has been working together with the superintendent and the admin team on many items within the district. We understand that is only through this collaboration that all stakeholders are heard and improve the district as a whole. The teachers of the committee for academic excellence extend their sincere appreciation for the valuable contributions of the six administrators who recently joined our meetings. Their participation
043proves to be informative, productive, and highly positive. We eagerly anticipate their continued involvement as their expertise and ability to translate committee recommendations into actionable improvements will be instrumental in advancing academic excellence within our community. Woo, that was a lot. Our 3 through 8 teachers and students are also working to prepare for the upcoming New York State assessments in ELA, math, and science that are set to begin in April and May. Um, as always, we express our gratitude and thank our UDICA teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and therapists for their continued hard work and dedication. Uh, the UTA contract expires at the end of the end of the school year, and we look forward to starting negotiations and APR discussions. Thank you. [Applause] Like to thank you very much. We have been working collaboratively with the
044uh union and UTA to address issues with our within our district. Some systemic, some historic, but it's a collaborative effort. Unfortunately, some people think that the only way that you can get somewhere is if you have a contentious relationship when you're, you know, you're at odds and you're battling. And part of being Udica united in the front that we stood on was we were not going to be divided by issues. The issues are as we described and, you know, we'll work through it. And so it's been good to be able to partner with the UTA um the committee for excellence and be able to work through some of these things and there will be more challenges. It's just the nature of the work. But what doesn't have to be is a contentious relationship and that's
045one of the things that we've been working to improve. So it's been good working with you all and we look forward to this. You know, we're going to be better for it. So thank you Scott. Thank you for coming. Scott Junior, I see you. What's up? And thank you all. And um committee for excellence. I got the superintendent. It's coming. All right, I got it. I know yall are on me. Thank you very much. Spare a little thing, but I'm going to get there. And I appreciate the support that you uh you took that assignment very serious and I appreciate that. [Applause] Okay. Thank you. Uh UAA UTC Team SER local 182, SEIU Local 200, Mohawk Valley Building and Trades Council. Reports of the special committees. We will go to audit finance grants and insurance
046toler Don any Mr. Oh Mr. Oz, it's all you. Turn your mic on, sir. We met um one of our morning sessions. Um basically looking at the uh the budget, the upcoming budget and hopefully um this year is is one of the better years we've had where the budget's going to balance. We don't have to cut jobs. Um everything goes forward. So, it's my honor. Thank you. Um, capital projects, building and grounds, health and safety. Mr. Cooper, do you want to take that one? Yeah, we met, uh, was it last week if I'm not mistaken? Um, had great conversations with building principles and representatives that were able to come discussing needs that they have, um, within their own buildings. And then upcoming starting Thursday into next week, the buildings and grounds committee will be taking
047walkthroughs um with that building principal at each school throughout the next week to tour the school, look at things that may be needed to be repaired, fixed, discussed um you know with Mike's team, etc. So looking forward to that as well. Yes. Thank you. Um CTE, do you want Did we have a meeting? Yes. Oh, we did have a meeting. Michelle was back to backing up on CTE. I will never forget you, Mrs. Hall. I promise I remember. Amazing. Still everything exciting happening. We're on point. So, we're ready. Um, and we're beginning to post physicians. So, now the project begins to fill those anticipated positions and we're going to be ready to go in September for all those students. Yeah. And I just I just want to add to that because I thought one of
048the most exciting things too to come is one of my favorite meetings, but the um fact that our students are starting much younger and getting hands-on experience like the amount of work that the elementary school teachers are doing and the way that the middle school students are actually being exposed to CT and those career paths and then um Carly Caligger doing all the field trips for kids and them having like almost all the I think they have more hours than they even need. Um it's it was just incredible to see like how many places have opened their doors to the Udica uh city school district and getting our kids into their establishments and then also the different kits that our um students have access to and the way that the teachers at elementary level are
049already encouraging them um into different pathways without them really even knowing it yet. So I think it's just been incredible and I've seen it even at the red program. So I just want to say kudos to all the work. I think we think it's at a high school level and you know we sit in these meetings and we realize it's starting as young as kindergarten which is huge. So the fact that our students are all having that exposure at K through 12 has just been incredible. So I just want to say thank you to everybody who's um has a part in that because there's a lot there's a lot of pieces um and your hard work does not go unnoticed. Okay, PAK uh PAK met last night. Um great meeting and again uh the first
050with Mr. Patterson who has joined us in his role. So it was great to to kind of hear from from Mr. Patterson his thoughts and you know over the last few weeks of onboarding um kind of his vision as as we go. The group spent some time talking about the pool status over the next couple years as that gets renovated in our capital project um as well as the home fields for many of our spring sports. So whether it's baseball, softball, there's been some movement um in some of these sports. So we we talked about how that looks and those facilities to make sure everything is squared away there. Uh and the other hot topic I will say that we talked about is how we move forward, what our forward vision is around student athlete
051recognition. Um whether you are a a single sport varsity athlete, a three sport varsity athlete, we want to look to see how we can maybe do more in terms of promotion and recognition uh beyond what we do here at our board meetings um when we have the opportunity. So I think uh more to come on that but that is is on our agenda and how we kind of proceed with that in the next year. So thank you. Um communications equity and outreach. We just had a meeting yesterday to you want to talk about? Um I mean I'll say I'm really excited to have a meeting. I think the AB coordinators are doing an amazing job highlighting all of our wonderful students and staff. I'm really excited about the UDICA gems um and the Raiders review
052and just the presence that we have on social media and highlighting our students and staff. And like we mentioned in the meeting, feel free to reach out to your AB coordinators if there is somebody that you feel that needs to be highlighted or an event at your school. They're working really hard on the communications team in within the office to get everything out. And then I don't really have an update on the art show because we will be meeting with um Christina on April 4th, but we're really excited to move that and make that initiative, which is one of the greatest events I think that we have in the district even um bigger and how we can build on that each year. And then if you want to talk about No, I think it's the
053same thing. I think um just a huge shout out to the communication. It's it's went leaps and bounds in the past two years and now we it's to the point where we actually get complaints from parents saying, "Take us off all this stuff." like it's too much. You guys are doing too much. So now we're getting parents that are saying, "Please take us off because we're getting too much communication on all levels." But I think that's a great thing and that's a huge shout out to all our AB coordinators and our teachers and principles and everybody because you're constantly the ones bringing the information forth and showing it so that we can get it out. So thank you because it's wonderful to highlight. I always say our parents and communities are no longer allowed in
054the schools, right? It's like that across the world. It's been a door that's been shut to keep our children safe and to provide a window of what happens in there is really wonderful so that parents and community members can get a glimpse of all the special stuff that goes in our school because our district is pretty special. So, it's wonderful to have that highlight always going. So, thank you. Yes. Um policy committee Braden or you want it? Sure. Yeah. I think we have two policies that we recommended to the board for tonight. we met two weeks ago. Um there's several others that Boseies uh looked at and recommended some changes to for us. A couple that we sent back to Boseies and I think one or two that we sent to other committees to take
055a look at before policy recommends them to the board. So moving along with policy revisions. We're getting them down little by little. We're getting them done. Awesome. And code of conduct. nothing but code of conduct this morning. Okay. So, I have to make um an adjustment to the agenda and reading it. We realize that the superintendent's report is not listed. So, if I can make I have a motion to uh amend amend the agenda to add the superintendent report. Move it. Second. All in favor? Okay. Motion carries. At this time, I'd ask Dr. Spence to present his superintendent report. Um, also I would like to note to the board that we are adding pages 21, 22, and 23. Any pages to be pulled at this time? Uh, yes. Okay. 14, S 209, and S2. Okay.
056Anybody else? Any pages of poll or for discussion? 209 210 on page 14. S 211. Page 15. Okay. Um and then when do I do the motion to news. Okay. Okay. So, if we can have a motion to accept the superintendent report um with the exception of S209, S2010, and S211 that we will have a discussion on second. All in favor? I. Okay. This is the part I think I'm going to screw up. Okay. What? Page 14. I need a motion to discuss S209. Motion. I already have it. Okay. Go ahead. Discussion. You need a second. Oh, no. One second. Thank you, James. Okay. Discussion. Discussion. No discussion. Just roll call vote on that one. You want two and I taken together? Yes, please. Okay. Then I'll amend the motion. I need a motion to
057um open discussion for S209 and S210. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. Discussion. Nope. No discussion. Just roll call. Okay. Clerk, can you please call the role for S209 and 210? Mr. Jason Cooper? Yes. Mr. Donald Dolls? Yes. Mrs. Tanil New? No. Mr. Braden Nannon? Yes. Mrs. Danielle? Yes. and Mr. Paul. Yes. Yes. Okay. Motion carries. Okay. We need a motion to discuss page 15 S211. Can I have a motion? Move that. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. Discussion. No. All I'm going to say is it's uh deals with a binding arbitration. And I think we're just spending money for the show. And I'm okay. Oh, all in favor. Do I need a motion if you're a motion? Yeah. So, just all in favor? Yeah. Yeah. Do you want a roll call vote? James would
058like one. Okay. Okay. Cler, can you please call a roll on page 15 to Mr. Cooper? Yes. Mr. Daws, abstain. Mrs. Snoop, yes. Mr. Nannet, yes. Mrs. Padulla, yes. And Mr. Paul, yes. Motion carries. That was all for the superintendent. Okay. Um, so the superintendent report passes. At this time, can um Sarah, can I ask you to introduce um the assistant principal? Yes. Okay. Thank you. I'd like to introduce today our new assistant super uh assistant principal, Douglas Scott Blanchard. Getting ahead of ourselves. Not yet. Not yet. Time. Someday soon. He's a good one. Douglas Scott Blanchard. He goes by Scott. He is an experienced educator and aspiring administrator with seven years of teaching experience in the Utica City School District. Scott has taught English for two years at Proctor High School, five years at
059JFK Middle School, where he currently serves as an administrative intern. He has developed a strong skill set and instructional leadership, student discipline, and managing day-to-day building operations. Passionate about creating positive learning environments, Scott believes in the power of building relationships with students, staff, and parents to foster trust, consistency, and accountability. He currently lives in Canes Stood with his wife and his one-year-old daughter. Everybody, Scott Blanchard, [Applause] do you want to say anything? I'd like to ask that question. Uh, just want to thank you for your consideration and say hello. I'm excited to uh for the opportunity. Awesome. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Scott. And he will be going to Donovan Middle School to support leadership over there. We're excited to identify our Udica gems within our system. But this has to be part of a
060more comprehensive effort for us to scout talent, develop talent, cultivate our homegrown talent so that we can transition them through the ranks. So, we're excited. We have to start somewhere. We're starting here and we're happy to start with you, Scott. So, thank you. Congratulations. [Applause] Okay. Um Ian for the budget status report. Good evening everyone. Uh so I have my final tax report. Um on January 29th, the city paid us in full for the remaining balance of our overdue taxes for the 2425 school year. Uh that amount was $2,72,256.14. Uh so we are now paid in full uh for our taxes. Um I've also enclosed for your consideration and review uh the general fund budget status reports. uh cafeteria fund budget status reports and the cash balance reports for all district bank accounts for the
061month ending January 31st 20 thou 2025. Um just some commentary on that. Some of the highlights for January we uh had some influx of cash with our uh closing of our taxes getting the payment from the city and also receiving our large uh January uh state aid installment. Uh so our cash flow is uh going good and uh continue to review that monthto monthth and looking at investment decisions and yeah so that's all uh any questions. Any questions for Ian? Thank you. Thank you Ian. We appreciate you do have a comment. Ian is just as happy in the evening as he is in the morning when I walk by. This is seeing adult day. That's all. I love it. Thank you Ian. Okay. I'm going to um ask to take these together. What? Are you
062all right? Don't scare me. Oh, all right. Okay. Um the approval of the February 13, 2025 regular meeting and the February 13th, 2025 executive session. Can I have a motion to approve? Move it. Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Okay. And continuing business. I do have continuing business. I um I need to make a motion to have the auditors conduct an audit of the federal funds based on the recommendation of the audit committee. Move it. Second. All in favor? Okay. Motion carries. Any other continuing business? Oh, any new business? I have one new business. Okay. Um, I should have said it earlier after the during the um, student representative report. Um, I had the pleasure of attending Mama Mia. I look forward to the musical every single year and always go. It was fantastic once
063again. And I just wanted to say how encouraging it is to see several alum working the musical and uh, working alongside our students at these events. And it just I had a couple people there who went to school with me and they've been either contributing back every single year since graduating and when they were there or they have started now. And it's just it's really nice to see the Udica community come together uh in our schools through events like this. So congratulations to the drama club on another absolutely fantastic musical and I look forward to next year. Sure. You're the boss. Oh, thank you. All right. Just wanted to just highlight we did some walkthroughs today, got into some buildings, and we just want to highlight some of the teaching that we see, which was
064really good, evidenced by the technical components of teaching. So, there's a pedagogical practice. This is an art form there to instruction. And so, it's always a pleasure to get into classrooms to really see the technical components and aspects of the work being employed. and the different uh creative ways in which we're engaging students. So it was a very good opportunity. We went to Donovan, we went to Kerning, we went to Jones. Am I missing one training? We I'm missing one. Huh? And we also went to MSA. So you know, in addition to um looking at our in school in district placements, we also touring our outer school placements so the superintendent can see where we send the children when we're taking them out of the school. So, we're looking at, you know, the type of
065instruction that they're seeing to evaluate that to make sure that they're also, you know, getting a quality um education. But again, I would just like to shout out those teachers. It was really good to get in the class to see the science of teaching and really be able to pick up on that and co-e with some of them. So, good work and we look forward to seeing more. And I just want to remind everybody that we do not have school on Monday in observance of Ramadan and Eid. And I just want to wish um everybody a happy Eid for those who are celebrating and um enjoy your longer weekend. Any anything else? No. Guys, are we going into executive session? No. Oh yeah, we're not. I need a motion to adjurnn. I scared you. I
066scared you. A motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? Oh, good night.